So I’m currently a redshirt sophomore at a D1 school played my first two seasons at a juco. The last 2 years I have been topping out at 92 even hitting 93 last summer. Some days I will sit 90-92 and not get tired, other days I will sit 86-87 and struggle to hit 88. I also have had a major lack of control. I walked 33 guys in 50 IP last spring. I worked with a private instructor and came to the conclusion that I needed to shorten up my stride length in order to stay less jerky with my upper body. I know that shortening your stride is frowned upon by a lot of pitching guys but i feel like i need to have a more repeatable delivery in order to be consistent. I would like a few tips or improvements to make me a little more consistent and possibly even pick up some velo.

Here is a video of one of my outings last summer (sorry about the bad quality):

Here are a couple short videos I took a few weeks back during practice:

Try and get your glove higher once you separate your hands. Right now it looks like it’s not much higher than your lower chest, that could help with some smoothness and add some velo/depth to your pitches.

I see a lot of good in your delivery. I particularly like your “equal & opposite” and your “hip & shoulder separation”.

In the 1st video, your stride more to the throwing arm side and you might be starting on the middle of the rubber and these things seem to create some posture issues when your shoulders try to square to the target. In the 2nd and 3rd videos you seem to have cleaned that up - possibly by moving to the glove side of the rubber. I would recommend you stay on the glove side of the rubber.

Your glove control is fairly good except you might get a little soft with it and let if get a little outside of your torso. Strive to keep it in front to avoid having it pull your front shoulder open early.

Regarding your stride length possibly being too long, I don’t see anything in any of the videos that would be cause for concern. Keep in mind that stride length is a result of other things in your delivery: how much momentum you create, how well you maintain a stable posture, how well you stay closed and rotate late, etc. Use stride length as an indicator of how well you do these other things but make doing these other things well your focus.

Finally, I am not a fan of the up-down-out front leg motion. Your center of mass has to stall over the back leg while the front leg does its thing. Then you have to get your center of mass moving forward while standing on one leg. That, to me, is a source of inconsistency. It also makes you slower to the plate. In the 2nd video, you appear to use the up-down-out motion and you also appear to have a late push-off/lunge. That will be a source of inconsistency if you can’t repeat it pitch to pitch. I do think you need more momentum (as evidenced by the recoil/fall-back after release in the 2nd video) so I would want to see you get your hips moving forward sooner/faster and force the front leg to take a more direct path to foot plant. Consider using the NPA’s Hershiser drill and Cross-over drill to practice this.

Thanks for the reply. I have tried that before and it felt a little uncomfortable to me. I’ve always felt more normal keeping my glove lower as you see in guys like verlander or randy johnson. Ill give it a shot next practice tho.

Thanks for the comment. Actually after talking with my coach a couple weeks back i know throw from the third base side of the mound in order to get better depth on my slider. It’s something that I saw Arrieta for the cubs do with a lot of success. Something I have recently changed is i try to keep my back leg straight until I start the process of getting my hips moving forward. I felt like that would give me more leverage and help with velo but I guess it could be doing the oppossite. I definitely feel more comfortable when there’s a slight bend in my knee and I start moving forward quickly as opposed to staying stiff until i finish my leg kick. I just see a lot of pro pitchers have tall back legs on their deliviries and I thought that would be the most efficient way to go.

I know some pitchers start on the throwing arm side of the rubber to create angle. But you have to be careful when you combine that starting position with a stride to the throwing arm side. When you throw to a target, your shoulders will try to square up to that target. But when you stride offline from that target, your shoulders will have a bigger “corner” to turn to get squared up. You might be able to square up strictly by rotating the shoulders further. But you might instead alter your posture late in your delivery in an attempt to square up. A late posture change can be a source of inconsistency. It can also pull your release point back. And it can reduce hip and shoulder separation since the hips won’t be able to square to the target when you’re striding away from the target.

So, in the end, it’s trade-offs. You need to decide if the positives of starting on the 3B side of the rubber out-weigh the negatives.

Pushing off your back leg is a key aspect of pitching. The more explosive you are, the better your seperation is, and it increases your linear energy who he’s another aspect of ball speed even without hip to shoulder seperation.